Metabolic characteristics of cells cultured from human umbilical blood vessels: comparison with 3T3 fibroblasts.

Little metabolic information is available for cells cultured from umbilical vascular tissue. These studies were undertaken to compare the metabolism of cells isolated from human umbilical arteries and veins with that of umbilical vascular segments. These studies also compared umbilical vascular cells to standard fibroblast preparations. Oxygen consumption by umbilical venous cells or tissues was greater than that for either arterial cells or tissues. Cellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content was greater in umbilical venous than arterial cells. However, an oxidation-phosphorylation ratio (R) was constant for either arterial or venous cells. Oxygen consumption by vascular cells was greater than that by nonvascular cells, as was cellular ATP content. R for nonvascular cells was much greater than that for vascular cells, indicating loose coupling between oxygen consumption and cellular ATP content. Finally, cellular oxygen consumption was dependent upon cell density, and upon media serum content in vascular endothelial cells. We conclude therefore that the metabolism of umbilical vascular cells in culture reflects that of the parent tissue but is different from that of either vascular or nonvascular fibroblasts.